| January 26, 2009 | Posted By: Trevor Wilson | Category: Recruiters |
Wow. I just came across a must read article called From HR: The Truth About Job Postings and the Hiring Process, and I’m completely shocked by what is posted in it, only because it is the complete truth.
When it comes to medium to large companies (ones with the capacity to have HR staff), it becomes difficult to pick the best candidates to interview solely on the basis of a resume and cover letter. This is mostly due to inaccurate job postings, inflated resumes, and a disconnect between HR and the functional managers requiring staff.
In this article, the author (Michael Wade) writes what seems like a confession from HR on the problems with the recruiting process. In it, you get some wonderful insight such as:
Our job requirements are rough and incomplete estimates of what might actually be needed to do the job. Most are obsolete. Many are ridiculously inflated and ones such as “five years of experience” were chosen because they sound good. Often, we don’t really know what we want.
I was once given great advice by David Edwards, the Director of the Business Career Center at the Queen’s School of Business (who also wrote the forward to my book). He said that if you feel that you meet 70% of the requirements of the job posting, then it is worth applying to. Having now read this confession, this advice seems even more true.
Finally, to ensure that you don’t get too discouraged, take solace in:
Despite all of our flaws, good people do get hired. Don’t take our requirements too seriously. Please realize that we routinely blunder and turn down a lot of great applicants. We aren’t proud of that, but it’s the truth. Submit those job applications. Be persistent. You’ll eventually prevail.
Amen to that.
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It’s definitely a tough process. What do you do when 20 outstanding applicants apply? 19 go away angry, and 1 is thrilled. Tough to look like the good guy to the other 19, but some companies go out of their way to make sure the communication is there and that the people feel like they were treated well. That’s where companies should be spending more time.
From an HR guy…
I agree completely. It’s vital for a company to explain the rationale behind a decision (as much as possible) as to not burn a bridge that may be beneficial to cross in the future. Sometimes hurting people is unavoidable, but you should at least strive to help them respect your decision.